The influence of visual word form in reading: single case study of an Arabic patient with deep dyslexia

Deep dyslexia is a written language disorder characterized by poor reading of non-words, and advantage for concrete over abstract words with production of semantic, visual and morphological errors. In this single case study of an Arabic patient with input deep dyslexia, we investigated the impact of graphic features of Arabic on manifestations of reading impairments through experimental tasks. Semitic languages like Arabic have particular graphic features allowing the assessment of the influence of global word form on manifestations of deep dyslexia. Our results suggest that reading Arabic relies on the global visual word form when the phonological route no longer functions, as in deep dyslexia.